In the 80’s there was a movie where the main character is about to be bankrupt and his farm foreclosed upon. He starts having these visions of building a baseball field in the middle of his cornfields in Iowa accompanied by voices that whisper, “If you build it, they will come.” Of course, since this is a movie, at the end of the film thousands of people show up to his baseball
field and his farm and family are saved. The audience, teary eyed with relief at the fulfillment of the impossible dream, heaves a big sigh of relief and the credits roll.
Unfortunately, we tend to approach our businesses in the same way because, after all, your business is your dream. You might be selling a product that people will actually buy. You might already have a customer who is actually paying you. You’re on your way. However, if you neglect to market, you will still just have that customer and all of your proverbial eggs in one basket.
Carving out the time to develop a marketing strategy is not only necessary, it is vital for the sustainability of your business. Even with limited resources, you can create a plan that will keep putting your business in front of people and increase sales.
Before I can convince you to take some practical steps, I know I have to convince you of the why:
Even if you’re not a brick and mortar, you need to have a place where customers can find out about your business and get to
know you. With over 100 million new startups opening every year worldwide, authenticity and branding are necessary ingredients that create sustainability and growth.
For those of you who are put off by sales, you are underestimating the power of putting your passion into print, video or pictures. You as the business owner are the best person to communicate to potential customers why they need your product. With social media platforms, it is much easier to transform your passion into an effective marketing campaign.
The more well known your company becomes, the more people will trust you. The more people trust you, the more they are likely to buy your product or service. Building a relationship with your customer through marketing communicates that you care about customers.
Without marketing, you won’t know if your idea actually sells. Marketing campaigns give you feedback on your product.
Without sales, you will not make money. No money, no company. Enough said.
Stay tuned next week when I give you some practical tips on how to market with limited cash and some strategies that will save you time when putting your plan together.